Your Two Cents: Parents worry teens are oversharing online

Sunday

Dec 2, 2012 at 12:01 AMDec 2, 2012 at 6:46 AM

Like many holiday shoppers, Mary Jane Muello encountered numerous requests for her personal information when she was out shopping this season. Stores dangled cash rewards and special offers in exchange for data, she said, and Muello, an assistant principal at Fairhaven High School, considered each carefully.

Like many holiday shoppers, Mary Jane Muello encountered numerous requests for her personal information when she was out shopping this season. Stores dangled cash rewards and special offers in exchange for data, she said, and Muello, an assistant principal at Fairhaven High School, considered each carefully.

"I must have asked at least 10 questions, like where does the information go and how do you use it," she said. "I thought, 'Well, do you really need my phone number, my email?'"

While Muello weighed pros and cons, including the potential flood of email offers or even identity theft, many teens might not be so careful, she said.

And that fact has their parents concerned.

According to a recent study from the Pew Research Center, 81 percent of parents of online teens say they worry about how much information advertisers can learn about their child's online behavior, with about 46 percent saying they are very concerned.

While the research specifically focused on online behaviors, the study found parents have several concerns including what information is shared, the kinds of interactions children are having with people they don't know, and the impact of personal postings on their child's reputation or future educational and job opportunities.

Muello's not surprised. It's a conversation that comes up occasionally at parent teacher group meetings in Fairhaven, she said. And, while parents aren't panicked, they are a little worried.

"There's a concern," she said. "But there's also an understanding of trying to make sure their kids are not giving out too much information."

Muello, who participates on a school task force on cyber-bullying, said the Internet and social media are so much a part of how kids communicate today and how they're connected, that using it wisely becomes just another skill to learn. It's like learning to become a wise consumer or learning to read the fine print of a contract, Muello said.

And some teens are already quite savvy about it.

"Not all, but some kids are very sophisticated in their thinking and about not giving out a lot of information about themselves," said Muello. "I think they're learning about that, to be a little more cautious about themselves."

When they're not, tools are available that let parents monitor or control Internet use and many are using them, Muello said.

According to Pew, 50 percent of parents of online teens have used parental controls or other means of blocking, filtering, or monitoring their child's online activities. Forty-two percent have searched for their child's name online, and 44 percent have checked the privacy policies of websites or social networking sites that their child is using.

"One of the things I hear is that some parents can turn off a phone at certain times, with their phones, and they can check FaceBook and other social media sites," said Muello. "There are parents that are very vigilant about it and I think that's good in the sense of it gets the conversation started. Like saying, 'OK, this is what's going on. Let's have a conversation about this."

The Fairhaven school system also offers some training on careful online use at the start of the school year, Muello said. The school uses a presentation called, "Pause Before You Post," put out by cap and gown company Jostens. The program advises students to consider four questions before posting including, 'Will anyone be embarrassed or hurt by my posting?' And, 'Am I proud of what I'm posting?'

It's one more way to get kids talking about the issue, Muello said, and as long as parents and teens are talking, kids will be more aware of potential dangers.

"That's the key to me. It's just another form of education," she said. "Kids are going to share information about themselves. But if you talk about it often enough, they'll think about it more often."

Do you have a question about a consumer matter? If so, we want to hear from you. Contact Beth Perdue at 508-979-4474 or bperdue@s-t.com. Your Two Cents is also available online at www.SouthCoastToday.com/yourtwocents.